The Court of Appeal met for the second time to decide on:

            a. What the correct way is for deposit prescribed information to be signed by a landlord who is a company

b. What the correct way is for a section 8 notice to be signed by a landlord who is a company

In summary the Court of Appeal held that:

a. Possession notices and prescribed information can be signed by an authorised individual on behalf of a corporate Landlord or agent.

b. These documents can be signed in accordance with section 44 of the Companies Act 2006.

c. Non-compliance with the above, or other relevant statutory requirements, does not necessarily invalidate the document and the effect of non-compliance will depend on the specific facts of the case.

The Northwood Solihull case:

In this case the Landlord brought a possession claim based on a section 8 notice served by them on the ground of rent arrears. The Tenant counterclaimed for damages for a failure by the Landlord to provide a valid prescribed information certificate.

Both the section 8 notice and the deposit certificate were signed by the Landlord’s company, namely by a company director or a property manager.

The Tenant’s argued that the only way for a company to validly sign these documents was in accordance with section 44 of the Companies Act 2006, i.e. signed by two directors or one director in the presence of a witness. If the Tenant was deemed correct, it would mean that every possession notice and certificate would have to be signed by at least one director and a witness.

The Landlord argued that the documents did not require the level of formality intended by section 44 of the Companies Act. The Landlord’s case was that common law agency principles applied and that a properly authorised individual was fully capable of validly signing these documents on behalf of the Landlord. The Landlord appealed, and in this first appeal Mr Justice Saini held that the section 8 notice was valid, however the prescribed information certificate was not.

In this second appeal the Tenant argued against the validity of the section 8 notice and the Landlord cross-appealed on the invalidity of the prescribed information document.

Decision:

The EWCA agreed with the Landlord. They found that the certificate could be signed by a person acting on behalf of the Landlord. The section 8 notice was also deemed valid and capable of being signed and served by an agent on behalf of the Landlord. Lord Justice Lewison considered the consequences of non-compliance and found that non-compliance would not invalidate these documents.

In light of the looming Renters Reform Bill haunting private Landlord’s who are waiting to see when this will come into effect, this decision allows many to bring possession proceedings a lot more easily, some might say levelling the playing field a little.